EOS is a long-standing European online series that just recently finished its 8th season with nerve-wracking finals attended by 8 top qualifiers coming out of the whole season. The overall winner was MercyMainBTW who answered a few questions for SCPortal!

You already were on the Introduction series, but still… Will you introduce yourself to any potential unaware reader?

Greetings! My name is MercyMainBTW, I’m mainly known for my Hilde and Setsuka gameplay at a decent competitive level in Europe… or at least I hope so! I also have been streaming my games to have people get to know me better!

You won the EOS Season 8 Finals. How did you prepare for it?

I just played the game a lot before partaking in the tournament. I was confident in my knowledge of the characters but my main concern was more trying not to lose my cool whenever I had to face an opponent that I had connection issues with.

Turns out I got incredibly fortunate not to face any of them! Especially as I play two characters that are very sensitive to lag with Hilde and her charges and Setsuka and her heavy execution inputs.

What was the most nerves-wrecking moment of the finals for you and why?

Definitely my anxiety and adrenaline kicking in and making me miss a lot of inputs during my matches with Setsuka. I realized that I had to gulp down my ego and play something else since my hands were shaking too much and I couldn’t do any input properly.

Not to mention the bracket reset with Lyonide, I was so angry at myself for losing my patience! I guess anger does fuel your determination to win sometimes!

How was your EOS Season 8 overall experience?

I will be completely honest here: Nashl3y and everyone else involved did their best, which was absolutely great! I won’t sugarcoat the fact however that, as others mentioned time and time again, there is to set a standard for players with questionable connection quality.

It’s fine if you want to play the game but participating in a tournament and make it excruciating for everyone else? It doesn’t sound fair to me at all, to the point of being almost selfish.

But hey, it’s Europe and this is what we got. These are mostly just my thoughts I want to be honest to everyone, including myself, so please do not take offense.

Is (or are) there anyone who helped you or who you wish to simply shout out?

I would like to shout out everyone from the Hilde’s discord server first as they were always the first in line to support me.

I also reserved special thanks to Rosa, for being so supportive of me during the entirety of the EOS and Draethion for being my main source of inspiration to have me learn to play Setsuka.

And I also would like to give a huge thanks to some of my dear friends who supported me like Seppius, Arioch, Denton, Valhanya, Aby, Refined, Blade, Freemard, and many more who were rooting for me. (The list would be excessively long if I were to quote everyone, if I missed someone and you were rooting for me, just consider like you were mentioned! )

You won using Setsuka and Hilde. Did you pick those two because of how you like them, or because they complement each other’s weaknesses, or something else?

Of course, I played them because they are my 2 main characters. Where Hilde excells at neutral and lockdown, Setsuka is incredibly strong at pressuring and snowballing.

In those scenarios where I thought I wouldn’t have the upper hand in the match up with Hilde, I switched to Setsuka and viceversa.

Tekken 8 was announced just recently. In case we will get SoulCalibur VII, what will you desire to get (or not) in the new installment?

1- Netcode, first of all. It’s unacceptable to be without a Netcode when it has become the standard;

2- No more Reversal Edge or very dumb clutch mechanics like Dark Legacy or Coda, winning because you’re losing is, like most said, absolutely disgusting;

3- Hilde and Setsuka of course! My dream, however, would be Lynette made an actual character but that’s impossible :’)

BONUS: Who is your favorite movie character and why?

Honestly, I do not watch a lot of movies. I do remember one however that striked me incredibly hard named “Detachment”. The protagonist was a teacher and had to help difficult students get back on the right road.

Thank you for the interview!